By T.S. Eliot
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning
TOGETHER
HEAD piece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
______
>
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In OUR dry cellar
ShApE without form, ShAdE without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without
m o t i o n;
Those who have crossed
With
direct eyes, to death’s other
Kingdom
Remember US --
if at all
-- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a b r o k e n column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More d i s t a n t and more solemn
Than a fading star
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No n e a r e r --
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
This is the dead land
This is the cactus land
Here the stone i m ag e s
Are RAISED, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
tReMbLiNg with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost k i n g d o m s
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow
For Thine is the kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the shadow
Life is very l o n g
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the shadow
For Thine is the kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
“Not with a bang but a whimper”- Allegory
“Kingdom”- motif
“Between the desire/And the spasm”-Parralellism
“Here we go round the prickly pear/Prickly pear prickly
pear”- rhythm
“As wind in dry grass/Or rats’ feet over broken glass”Consonance